The present invention is related to a vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus for picking-up an image of a peripheral area of a vehicle by operating a camera mounted on this vehicle, and for displaying the image of this picked up peripheral area of the vehicle on a monitor display unit.
Conventionally, as such a vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus, while a plurality of cameras are mounted on a vehicle in order to pick up an image of a peripheral area of this vehicle, image data having different view angles and acquired by these plural cameras are combined with each other, so that the peripheral area of the vehicle is displayed on a monitor display unit contained in the vehicle.
However, in accordance with the above-explained conventional vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus, there is a problem in order to monitor-display the peripheral-area of the vehicle. That is, a plurality of cameras used to pick up images regarding all of the peripheral areas of the vehicle should be mounted.
Also, in accordance with the above-described conventional vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus, although the peripheral-area of the vehicle can be monitor-displayed in real time, for instance, considering a mounting position of such a camera used to pick up an image of a road surface of a lower portion of a vehicle body of this vehicle, this road surface of the lower portion of the vehicle body could not be monitor-displayed. Furthermore, there is another problem that the peripheral portion of the vehicle which has been picked up in the past could not be monitor-displayed.
The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and therefore, has an object to provide a vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus capable of monitor-displaying not only a road surface of a lower portion of a vehicle body of a vehicle, but also a peripheral-area of the vehicle, which has been picked up in the past, even when such plural cameras used to pick up all of peripheral-areas of this vehicle are not mounted.
To achieve the above-described object, a vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus of the present invention is featured by comprising: an image pick-up means for picking up images of a peripheral area of a vehicle; a positional information detecting means for detecting the own vehicle position of the vehicle as positional information; a data storage means for storing thereinto both picture data as to the peripheral area of the vehicle, which is picked up by the pick-up means, and also the positional information of the picked up vehicle; a picture composite means for reading out picture data corresponding to the positional information detected by the positional information detecting means from the data storage unit, and for combining the read picture data with such picture data indicative of a shape of the vehicle; and a display control means for causing the picture data combined in the picture composite means to be displayed on a display means.
As a consequence, in accordance with the vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus of the present invention with employment of the above-described structure, while both the picture data as to the picked up peripheral area of the vehicle, and also the positional information of the vehicle acquired during this pick-up operation are sequentially stored into the data storage means, the picture data corresponding to the positional information detected by the positional information detecting means is read out from the data storage means, and then, this read picture data is combined with such a picture data indicative of the shape of the vehicle. This combined picture data is displayed on the display means. As a consequence, even when a plurality of cameras which may pick up all of the peripheral areas of the vehicle are not mounted on the vehicle, not only the road surface of the lower portion of the vehicle body of the vehicle can be monitor-displayed, but also the past pictures of the peripheral area of the vehicle can be monitor-displayed.
The vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus of the present invention is featured by comprising: a picture data comparing means for comparing present picture data as to the peripheral area of the vehicle picked up by the image pick-up means with the picture data which is stored in the data storage unit and corresponds to the positional information of the picked up vehicle; and in that the positional information detecting means corrects the detected present positional information based upon the comparison result of the picture data comparing means.
As a consequence, in accordance with the vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus, the present picture data as to the picked up peripheral area of the vehicle is compared with the picture data which is stored in the data storage means and corresponds to the positional information of the picked up images of vehicle, and then, the present positional information is corrected based upon this comparison result, so that the precision of this present positional information of the vehicle can be increased.
The vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus of the present invention is featured by that the positional information detecting means is comprised of: a steering, amount detecting means for detecting a steering amount equivalent to a steering angle of the vehicle; a travel distance detecting means for detecting a travel amount equivalent to a travel distance of the vehicle; and an integration processing means for performing an integration process operation with respect to both the steering amount detected by the steering amount detecting means and the travel amount detected by the travel distance detecting means, whereby the own vehicle position of the vehicle is calculated as positional information.
As a consequence, in accordance with the vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus, since the integration process operation is carried out with respect to both the steering amount of the vehicle and the travel amount of this vehicle, the own vehicle position of the vehicle can be simply calculated as the positional information.
The vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus of the present invention is featured by comprised of: a picture data comparing means for comparing present picture data as to the peripheral area of the vehicle picked up by the image pick-up means with the picture data which is stored in the data storage means and corresponds to the positional information of the picked up images of vehicle; and a correction coefficient calculating means for calculating a correction coefficient for the integration process operation executed by the integration processing unit so as to correct the present positional information based upon an error of a portion where the present picture data is overlapped with the past picture data by the picture data comparing means.
As a consequence, in accordance with the vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus of the present invention, while the present picture data and the past picture data are compared with each other, which are related to the peripheral-area of the vehicle picked up by the image pick-up means, the correction coefficient of the integration process operation is calculated based upon the error contained in the portion where the present picture data is overlapped with the past picture data. As a consequence, the calculation precision of the positional information performed by the integration processing means 21 can be largely improved.
The vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus of the present invention is featured by that the picture composite means produces three-dimensional picture data based upon both the picture data corresponding to the present position information and picture data corresponding to such positional information located adjacent to the present positional information, and also combines the three-dimensional picture data with the picture data of the vehicle.
Accordingly, in accordance with the vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus of the present invention, while the picture composite means produces the three-dimensional picture data based upon the present positional information and also a plurality of picture data corresponding to the positional information located adjacent to this present positional information, this three-dimensional picture data is combined with the picture data of the own vehicle, so that the three-dimensional picture can be monitor-displayed.
The vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus of the present invention is featured by that the vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus is comprised of: a picture map producing means for producing a picture map based upon a plurality of positional information and also past picture data corresponding to the respective positional information, which are stored in the data storage means; and the display control means displays the picture map produced by the picture map producing means on the display means.
As a consequence, in accordance with the vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus of the present invention, while the picture map is produced based upon a plurality of positional information and also the past picture data corresponding to the respective positional information, which are stored in the data storage means, this produced picture map is displayed on the display means. As a result, such a real picture which could not be conventionally obtained may be utilized as the map, so that utilization of the user can be greatly improved.
The vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus of the present invention is featured by that the image pick-up means is comprised of: a backward image pick-up means for picking up a backward scene of the vehicle; a forward image pick-up means for picking up a forward scene of the vehicle; a travel direction detecting means for detecting a travel direction of the vehicle; and a control means for executing the image pick-up operation only by the forward image pick-up means when the travel direction detecting means detects a forward travel of the vehicle, and also for executing the image pick-up operation only by the backward image pick-up means when the travel direction detecting means detects a backward travel of the vehicle.
As a consequence, in accordance with the vehicle peripheral-area display apparatus of the present invention, the control means executes the image pick-up operation only by the forward image pick-up means when the traveling direction detecting means detects the forward travel of the vehicle whereas the control means performs the image pick-up operation only by the backward image pick-up means when traveling direction detecting means detects the backward travel of the vehicle. As a result, even when the user does not perform the switching operation between the backward image pick-up means and the forward image pick-up means, larger numbers of picture data are acquired, so that the traveling direction detecting effect can be furthermore improved.